The Sun features original coverage of the university and its environs as well as stories from the Associated Press and UWIRE. It prints on weekdays when the university is open for academic instruction as a tabloid-sized daily. In addition to these regular issues, The Sun publishes a graduation issue and a freshman issue, which is mailed to incoming Cornell freshmen before their first semester. The paper is free on campus and online.

The Sun is staffed entirely by Cornell students, aside from a few full-time production and business positions, and is fully independent of the university. It operates out of its own building in downtown Ithaca.

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History

The Cornell Sun was founded in 1880 by William Ballard Hoyt to challenge Cornell's original and leading publication, the weekly Cornell Era (founded 1868). The Era shortly became a literary journal, and was eventually consigned to oblivion. The Sun boasted in its opening paragraph: "We have no indulgence to ask, no favors to beg."

The first issue: September 16, 1880

The paper incorporated and changed to daily frequency, earning its longstanding boast "Ithaca's Only Morning Newspaper." In 1912 it added a second, "first collegiate member of the Associated Press."

Following the shift of its main competitor, the Ithaca Journal, from evening to morning daily publication in 1996, The Sun changed its traditional front page slogan which, after several iterations, now states "Independent Since 1880." This period also marked a shift in The Sun's content from national to local and university-related stories.

In January 2003, the Cornell Daily Sun Alumni Association purchased the former Elks Lodge in downtown Ithaca, erected 1916. Led by Stan Chess, the founding president of the Association, John Schroeder '74, and Gary L. Rubin '72, the alumni completely renovated the building over the next several months. Now called the Cornell Daily Sun Building, it has housed the paper's offices since June 2003 and is coincidentally located next door to the Ithaca Journal's offices.

In the fall semester of 2004, The Sun turned free and started featuring full-color front and back pages as part of a redesign in its layout. These moves were partially effected to boost circulation in response to Cornell's Student Assembly's decision to provide The New York Times and USA Today on campus for free to all undergraduate Cornell students.